UAE: New tech can help residents live beyond 100 years old, says healthcare group

A local healthcare group has unveiled a revolutionary vision to increase people's life expectancy to 101 years — which it said could be possible through various technologies, from digital twins to artificial intelligence and futuristic concepts like a personalised smart coach.

Pure Health, the UAE’s largest integrated healthcare platform, seeks to increase lifespan, health, and quality of life, as well as unlocking time for people in Abu Dhabi.

“The vision is to make Abu Dhabi the land of longevity, where people from across the globe migrate to live longer, healthier and happier lives,” Shaista Asif, group COO, said during an event at Louvre Abu Dhabi.

Farhan Malik, CEO, noted a “healthcare revolution” was needed to make people live a fuller life.

“The biggest cause of death is not cancer, heart disease or any other ailment – it’s ageing. We need to look at ageing as an epidemic. When we talk about longevity, we don’t just mean increasing life spans, but health spans: making people healthier for longer.”

Demographic shift

Globally, there is a major demographic shift as the world is ageing with more people over 64 years of age than children under 5.

Malik underlined that an “explosion” of new medicines, treatments, technologies and social strategies will change the way people age – a factor which will have a direct impact on the economy too.

“Life expectancy currently is 76 years. If we increase the life expectancy from 76 years to 101, we have added an extra 25 years of demand to the economy.”

The futuristic vision, Asif said, isn’t possible if all healthcare verticals work in isolation – Pure Health has, therefore, merged them together.

“At Pure Health, we are in the process of not just converging different technologies but also different fields. We have successfully integrated and merged them together under one umbrella, for them to have a joint purpose, and shared responsibility, to achieve one vision,” she said.

Pure Health also launched a new logo during the event. Their assets currently include Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (Seha), the National Health Insurance Company (Daman), The Medical Office, Pure Lab, Abu Dhabi Stem Cells Centre, and Rafed, among others.

Pure Health will be not just using its own medical data but also inputs from smart homes to diagnose a disease and offer remedies. Asif presented the case of Ahmed as an example – a child whose life has been transformed with the use of advanced technology.

When a football coach notices an abnormal growth on Ahmed’s arm, a photo taken by him is sent to an AI-enabled medical device, which detects cancer.

While growing up, a “digital twin” is created to check for which particular drugs will be effective on Ahmed and help him play football for the national team.

Later, he meets with an accident, damaging his heart, but bio-printing gives him a new organ.

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